[pcdreams]

a friend was telling me he used one of these to drill a 230ft well (100 of which was rock) in arkansas. Just wondered if anyone had any experience with these. Sure would be a lot cheaper than having a well driller out( provided you could rent one or had more than one well to do)

http://www.deeprock.com/

 

[moopups]

I had a friend that tried to make spare money with one of these, he sold it at a loss very soon after he got it.

 

[Jim S.]

If you are talking about the hydradrill, they have been selling those for decades. I just frankly don't believe the smaller ones will do the job in rock, and I have read that they are good to about 100 feet. The larger, more expensive ones might. Another drawback to the more inexpensive smaller ones is that they will only accomodate a 2" casing. You have to buy up to a bigger one to get a casing large enough for a submersible pump.

The average well casing in my area is 6" PVC casing pipe. I had a 70-foot well drilled, cased, capped and registered on my place 2 years ago for a total charge of $1,740. So even the argument of it being cheaper does not apply where I live. I'd check local prices on well drilling before I accepted the Web site's $8,000 figure.

When those boys hit the gravelly rock we have at about 30 feet, that truck drill had to WORK!

Now, if you are in the right places in the Midwest, you don't need any of that. All you need is a sandpoint, some iron pipe, and a tractor with front end loader to get you up to 100 feet in the ground. I've seen people drive shallow sandpoints in the right kind of soil with a ladder and a post driver. But most folks don't have that luxury.

 

[Hoop]

A friend of mine had one (he purchased it used). He attempted to drill his own well with it. Around here, wells come in at anywhere from 12' in depth. Normal is maybe 100 feet and rarely does a well ever exceed 300 feet.

He was down approx 20', hit some hardpan, and the bit turned into putty. He tried several remedies (other bits) all without success.

I was interested in purchasing the rig. He gave me all the manuals to read. After reading it all and seeing the chintzy piece of crap in person, I decided it really was a Mickey Mouse piece of equipment. The logistics of how this works is simply cumbersome. Especially troubling is the fact that one needs lots of water on hand just to operate the rig. And lets face it, if one is drilling a well, they probably don't have a water supply on hand.

I'm sure there are areas where this sort of thing might work. I simply can't imagine there are many of them.

I say check around with the older well drillers/plumbers in your area to see if there is a 10 to 1 chance it may work in your area.

 

[farminghandyman]

look at this,
http://www.wellspringafrica.org/
they are teaching the the cable rig method, where you use a bit to dig and then a bucket to remove the mud or debris
then go here, http://www.vintagewindmills.com/Community/DiscussionF.htm and do search on cable rigs, (currently the site is down lighting strike)
there home page, http://www.vintagewindmills.com/

some small rigs http://www.consallen.com/forager/cable-tool/cable-tool-drilling.htm

they can be made fairly easy,

http://www.drilshop.com/holes/cabtool.html

jsut an idea, I have never done it but it looks do able I know one well I have was cable rigged drilled on the farm here, was done with horse powered rig,

basically the rig is a set of winches to pull up the tools one for the buckets and one for the bit system, and then a wheel that will work the bit up and let it drop, many times it is a wheel with a lug that will catch the rope the bit is on and pull it up and then let it slip off or a manual system that you engage and release, or like the well spring method you twenty of your closest friends to pull the ropes,

 

[pcdreams]

darn. So much for that idea. LOL.. Already talked to Several driller and they want ~$5500 (thats guestimating a depth of 350ft and 120' cased..not including pump!!).. Certainly can't afford that. Wonder how much one of those big plastic 500 tanks are..

 

[WisJim]

Back in 1975 or 76 we bought a Deeprock outfit, and used tit to put in our well through 30 feet of limestone. We put in a hand pump with a small cylinder and it worked fine. A friend used our outfit to put in 2 other wells, and we finally sold it to another fellow. Wish I had kept it. It was a bit slow going, and as mentioned you need water---kept my wife busy hauling 55 drums of water on our truck--and you sometimes don't think you are making progress.


The stand with winch etc that deeprock sells as part of the outfit now would make it lots easier--I held it by hand, and started standing on a tailgate of a truck, then on the ground, then added another section of drill stem and back up on the tailgate, etc.

 

[pcdreams]

Back in 1975 or 76 we bought a Deeprock outfit, and used tit to put in our well through 30 feet of limestone. We put in a hand pump with a small cylinder and it worked fine. A friend used our outfit to put in 2 other wells, and we finally sold it to another fellow. Wish I had kept it. It was a bit slow going, and as mentioned you need water---kept my wife busy hauling 55 drums of water on our truck--and you sometimes don't think you are making progress.


The stand with winch etc that deeprock sells as part of the outfit now would make it lots easier--I held it by hand, and started standing on a tailgate of a truck, then on the ground, then added another section of drill stem and back up on the tailgate, etc.

I got plenty of time, just not a lot of dough Not sure which the rock is here/there its either limestone or sandstone.

 

[WisJim]

Time, youth, and lack of money was our situation back then. First we drilled a 1" hole with the small carbide bit, and had to bring the bit up very often and push out the stone core. I had buckets of nice limestone cylinders, from and inch to 5 or 6 inches long. Then reamed out the hole with the bigger bit. I don't really recall how we decided we hit water, but it all worked out okay, and we used it for over 12 years, until we moved, and it was still working fine the last I knew.

 

[halfpint]

We had one several years ago, we were not able to drill on our property as we'd get down about 15' and hit solid rock. We were successful in drilling wells on several friends properties, and we got the auger attachment to drill for fence posts, so between what we got for drilling friends wells, what it would have cost us to put fence posts in, and what we sold it for, we got our money's worth.

Dawn